JPH06131166A - Term generator by graphic input - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a term generator by graphic input capable of generating terms to be processed by a term reloading software generator by the graphic input. CONSTITUTION:A knowledge base 37 stores knowledge required for generating the terms from graphic object internal expression. When an user performs the various kinds of operations for editing graphics from an input device 1 so as to express the specification of a program to be designed by using predetermined graphic symbols, an editing means 31 edits the graphic object internal expression 38 on a temporary storage means 39 and a display means 32 monitor displays the graphics corresponding to the graphic object internal expression 38 at an output device 2. When the user finishes editing and starts a graphic object term generation means 34 from the input device 1, the means 34 converts the editing-comleted graphic object internal expression 38 to the form of the terms to be inputted to the term reloading software generator 5 by utilizing the knowledge of the knowledge base 37 and outputs it as graphic object terms 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a term generation device by graphic input capable of generating data called a term to be processed by a term rewriting software generation device, which is a kind of automatic program generation device, by graphic input.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A term rewriting software generation apparatus, which is a type of automatic program generation apparatus, generates a desired program by repeatedly converting program specifications using a design knowledge base (for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 3-6
9135).

In this type of automatic program creating apparatus, it is premised that the specifications of the program to be created are input in the text format. In the automatic program creating apparatus, the input text format program specifications are specified. Is converted into a data format called a term, and the design knowledge base is applied to the term to generate a program.

[0004]

As described above, in the past, since the user had to input the program specifications in the text format, it was difficult to visually grasp the program specifications and grasp the entire program to be designed. It wasn't easy to do. Most software models are handled by graphic symbols, but when such a software model is handled by a term rewriting software generation device, the program specifications cannot be described by similar graphic symbols, and the usability is poor.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a term generation device by graphic input capable of generating a term to be processed by the term rewriting software generation device by graphic input. To provide.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention edits an internal representation of a graphic object on an input device, an output device, and temporary storage means in accordance with information input from the input device. Graphic object editing means for performing, graphic object display means for displaying a graphic corresponding to the graphic object internal representation on the temporary storage means on the output device, and knowledge necessary for generating terms from the graphic object internal representation. The format of terms for inputting the graphic object term format knowledge base that has been edited and the internal representation of the graphic object on the temporary storage means that has been edited to the term rewriting software generation device using the knowledge of the graphic object term format knowledge base. And a graphic object term generation means for converting into.

Further, a graphic object file, a graphic object file access means for inputting and outputting the internal representation of the graphic object between the graphic object file and the temporary storage means, and the graphic object according to the information inputted from the input device. A graphic object term format editing means for editing the object term format knowledge base is provided.

[0008]

In the term input device for figure input according to the present invention, the knowledge object required for generating terms from the internal representation of the figure object is stored in the figure object term format knowledge base, and the program designed by the user is designed. When various operations relating to the editing of a graphic are performed from the input device in order to express the specifications of the graphic using a predetermined graphic symbol, the graphic object editing means performs the internal operation of the graphic object on the temporary storage means according to the input information. While editing the expression, the graphic object display means displays on the output device a graphic corresponding to the internal expression of the graphic object on the monitor,
When the user finishes editing and activates the graphic object term generation means from the input device, the graphic object term generation means uses the knowledge of the graphic object term format knowledge base to represent the internal representation of the graphic object on the temporary storage means after the editing. It is used to convert to the format of the term input to the term rewriting software generation device.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, an example of a program automatic creation device to which the present invention is applied is composed of an input device 1, an output device 2, a term generation device 3, and a term rewriting software generation device 5. .

The input device 1 is a device that receives an input from a user, and is composed of, for example, a keyboard and a mouse.
The output device 2 is a device for displaying the edited result to the user.
It is composed of a display device such as T.

The term generation device 3 is a device that supports generation of terms by graphic input according to input information from the input device 1. The term generation device 3 displays the figure being edited on the output device 2 on a monitor and the generated terms are generated as graphic objects. The term 4 is output to the term rewriting software generation device 5.

The term generation device 3 includes a graphic object editing means 31, a graphic object file access means 32, a graphic object display means 33, a graphic object term generation means 34, a graphic object term format editing means 35, and a graphic. It includes an object file 36, a graphic object item format knowledge base 37, and a temporary storage means 39 for holding a graphic object internal representation 38.

The figure object internal representation 38 represents a figure as an object having its position information, figure category information, figure name information, relationship information with other figures, and the like.

The graphic object editing means 31 generates a graphic object internal representation 38 in the temporary storage means 39 in accordance with a graphic edit request from the input device 1 and performs an edit process on the generated graphic object internal representation 38. It is a means. The edit processing includes designation of graphic objects, definition of graphic object names, definition of relationships between graphic objects, cut, copy, paste, move, delete, and undo / redo of processing.

The graphic object display means 33 displays the graphic corresponding to the graphic object internal representation 38 held in the temporary storage means 39, that is, the specifications of the program to be designed which the user has created using the input device 1. It is a means for displaying the represented figure on the output device 2 on a monitor.

The graphic object file 36 is a file for storing the internal representation of the graphic object.

Graphic object file access means 3
2 is a temporary storage unit 39 according to a request from the input device 1.
Is a means for storing the graphic object internal representation 38 held in the graphic object file 36, and conversely expanding the graphic object internal representation stored in the graphic object file 36 into the temporary storage means 39.

Graphic Object Term Format Knowledge Base 37
Is a knowledge base that stores the knowledge necessary for converting the internal representation of the graphic object into terms, such as the definition of the relationship between the shape of the graphic object and the term.

The graphic object term format editing means 35
This is means for editing the graphic object term format knowledge base 37 in accordance with a request from the input device 1.

The graphic object term generation means 34 is a means for converting the graphic object internal representation 38 held in the temporary storage means 39 into the graphic object term 4 while referring to the knowledge of the graphic object term format knowledge base 37.

The term rewriting software generation device 5 in FIG. 1 is a device for generating a source program 6 by inputting and processing the graphic object term 4 generated by the term generation device 3, and rewriting execution means 51, Rewriting rule editing means 52 and rewriting rule knowledge base 5
3 and a rewrite control knowledge base 54.

The rewriting rule knowledge base 53 and the rewriting control knowledge base 54 constitute a design knowledge base for rewriting the terms, and the rewriting rule knowledge base 53 rewrites the graphic object terms to obtain the source program. The rules themselves are stored, and the rewriting control knowledge base 54 stores the control knowledge that specifies the order of the rewriting rules to be applied in the rewriting rule knowledge base 53.

The rewriting execution means 51 is means for rewriting the graphic object term 4 into the source program 6 while referring to the knowledge stored in the rewriting rule knowledge base 53 and the rewriting control knowledge base 54.

The rewriting rule editing means 52 is the input device 1
It is a means for editing the rewriting rule knowledge base 53 and the rewriting control knowledge base 54 in accordance with the request from the.

The term rewriting software generation device 5
The structure of itself can use what has been proposed so far,
The automatic software generation device of the present embodiment is characterized in that a term generation device 3 for graphic input is provided in the preceding stage of such a term rewriting software generation device 5.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below. In addition,
Although various source programs can be created by the automatic software generation device of the present embodiment, an example of creating a source program that realizes the logic expressed by the state transition diagram will be described below based on the state transition diagram. And explain.

In such a case, the following knowledge, for example, is stored in advance in the graphic object term format knowledge base 37 of FIG. 1 using the graphic object term format editing means 35 of FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2 (a) used in the state transition diagram, for the graphic symbol indicating the state A, termname: state; arity (1): A; event as shown in FIG. 2 (b). For the graphic symbol indicating that B has occurred, termname: event; arity (1): B; For the graphic symbol indicating that the action C is to be executed, as shown in FIG. 7C, termname: action; arity ( 1): C; For a graphic symbol that means the connection of the graphic symbols of (a) to (c) in the same figure (d), termname: combination; arity (1): start; arity (2) : End; is stored.

In general, the form of the term is N (A1, A
2, ..., An), where N is the termname and A1 in parentheses
Etc. are called arity, and arity (i) means the i-th arity.

The following knowledge is also stored in the graphic object term format knowledge base 37.

It is needless to say that the rewriting rule knowledge base 53 and the rewriting control knowledge base 54 also store the necessary knowledge in advance by using the rewriting rule editing means 52.

After the above-mentioned preparations are completed, the user operates the input device 1 to activate the graphic object editing means 31 and use the editing function of the source program to be designed. Create a state transition diagram that represents the specifications. At this time, the graphic object editing means 31 generates the corresponding graphic object internal representation in the temporary storage means 39 according to the data input from the input device 1, the designation, and the like, and the generated graphic object internal representation as specified. Is executed, and the state transition diagram corresponding to the state of the graphic object internal representation 38 at each time, that is, the state transition diagram created by the user is displayed on the screen of the output device 2 by the graphic object display means 33 on the monitor. is doing.

FIG. 3 is an example of a state transition diagram created in this way, and expresses a certain state transition using the graphic symbols shown in FIG.

Next, when the user completes the state transition diagram as shown in FIG. 3, the user activates the graphic object term generation means 34 from the input device 1.

When the graphic object term generation means 34 is activated, the state transition diagram shown in FIG. 3 stored in the temporary storage means 39 with reference to the aforementioned knowledge stored in the graphic object term format knowledge base 37. The graphic object internal representation 38 corresponding to is processed to generate a graphic object term 4 which is a term corresponding to the graphic object internal representation 38. As a result, the graphic object term 4 having the following structure is generated.

[0037]

With this, the term format that can be processed by the term rewriting software generation device 5 is obtained, and when the user activates the rewriting execution means 51 from the input device 1, the rewriting execution means 51 is rewritten by the rewriting control knowledge. According to the rewriting control knowledge in the base 54, the knowledge of the rewriting rule is read from the rewriting rule knowledge base 53, and by applying this, the graphic object term 4 is converted into the source program 6. In the case of the graphic object term as described above, the following source program 6 is generated.

[0039]

As described above, according to the automatic program creation apparatus of the present embodiment, it is possible to generate the term given to the term rewriting software generation apparatus 5 by the graphic input, and it is possible to visually grasp the whole at the time of designing. It will be possible.

Further, since the graphic object file 36 and the graphic object file access means 32 are provided, it is possible to save the internal representation of the graphic object which is being created or has been created and reuse it later.

Further, the graphic object term format editing means 3
By changing the contents of the graphic object term format knowledge base 37 according to 5, it is possible to use as a term generation device suitable for other graphic inputs such as for Petri nets. can do.

[0043]

As described above, according to the term input device by graphic input of the present invention, the term to be processed by the term rewriting software generation device can be generated by the graphic input, so that the program can be programmed at design time. It becomes easy to capture the entire specification visually. Many software models are handled by graphic symbols, but if the term generation device by graphic input of the present invention is used, the term can be rewritten by directly using the software model created using such graphic symbols. It becomes possible to create terms to be given to the software generator.

Further, since the graphic object file and the graphic object file access means are provided, it is possible to save the internal representation of the graphic object which is being created or has been created and reuse it later. If the contents of the graphic object term format knowledge base are changed by the editing means, the graphic symbols that can be handled can be changed, and can be used universally for various program automatic creation devices.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a program automatic creation device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a graphic symbol used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a state transition diagram expressing the program specifications created in the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input device 2 ... Output device 3 ... Term generation device 31 ... Graphic object editing means 32 ... Graphic object file access means 33 ... Graphic object display means 34 ... Graphic object term generation means 35 ... Graphic object term format editing means 36 ... Graphic Object file 37 ... Graphic object term format knowledge base 38 ... Graphic object internal representation 39 ... Temporary storage means 4 ... Graphic object term 5 ... Term rewriting software generation device 51 ... Rewriting execution means 52 ... Rewriting rule editing means 53 ... Rewriting rule knowledge base 54 ... Rewriting control knowledge base 6 ... Source program

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An input device, an output device, a graphic object editing means for editing an internal representation of a graphic object on a temporary storage means in accordance with information input from the input device, and an internal graphic object on the temporary storage means. Graphic object display means for displaying a graphic corresponding to the expression on the output device, a graphic object term format knowledge base storing knowledge necessary for generating terms from the graphic object internal representation, and the temporary storage after editing. And a graphic object term generation means for converting the internal representation of the graphic object on the means into the format of the term to be inputted to the term rewriting software generation device by utilizing the knowledge of the graphic object term format knowledge base. Term generation device by graphic input. 2. A graphic object file, graphic object file access means for inputting and outputting an internal representation of a graphic object between the graphic object file and the temporary storage means, and the graphic according to information input from the input device. The term generation device by graphic input according to claim 1, further comprising graphic object term format editing means for editing the object term format knowledge base.